Surviving (and liking) skiing in Utah

Posted on March 1, 2011 by elliewick

Skiing in Utah was going to be my big challenge.

I was more than afraid of the slopes, even though I had a practice session in New York earlier in the season. I knew I would be able to turn, or at least I was pretty confident of it, but the steepness and height of the mountains were my biggest fears, courtesy of my time skiing in Austria.

Friday was going to be my first day out, but Jon, the skilled skier behind this adventure, decided we were getting too later of a start, so we went to the Sundance Film Festival instead.

We tried again Saturday morning.

We rented skis for me for the day at REI before heading to Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon southeast of Salt Lake City.

Once we entered the canyon the snow started falling and by the time we got past Snowbird, the first resort in the canyon, there was quite a snowstorm happening.

I didn’t want to get out of the car. It was cold and it was quite windy. I was worried I didn’t have enough layers and since it was snowing, I couldn’t see the mountains I was up against.

What I was up against on day one

I almost fell walking from the car to the lodge and at that point Jon said we really didn’t have to ski because we had not yet purchased a lift ticket. He asked me again a few minutes later and my response was that if he keeps asking me about skiing, I really would change my mind and pass on this adventure.

I did have one positive moment just after purchasing my lift ticket because the guy at the next window over didn’t know what to do with his lift ticket. It has a sensor that when activated opens the gates to the lift line, so it should be kept in an outside pocket. He asked what to do with his card, if he should wear it around his neck. I knew this because that’s how the lifts in Austria worked, and that poor guy was slightly mocked by the ticket saleswoman.

And then for one final moment of dread before getting in line, I couldn’t get my left ski to hook into my binding because there was so much snow stuck to the bottom of my boot. This continued to be a problem, but we at least knew what the problem was and how to fix it for the rest of the day.

We finally set out. It’s blistery cold and snowing and I needed my goggles for the first time since I learned to ski 12 years ago. I eventually decided I needed my hood, too, which I’d also never used.

I was pretty timid at first. On one of the first lift rides, Jon was a bit concerned because I wasn’t talking. When I’m a good nervous, like waiting in line for the new ride at Cedar Point, I talk incessently. When I’m scared and nervous I don’t say anything.

The snow was unlike anything I’ve ever skied in. Turning felt different, but the amount of fresh snow also helped me stay perpendicular, and I made it through the day without falling. By the end of the day I was even having a bit of fun, though I still wasn’t exceedingly confident.

Surviving day one

Mentally, day two started off where day one ended. It was the first time I’d ever skied two days in a row, but I wasn’t sore since we only spent four hours on the slopes rather than the six or more I expected.

Day two's weather forecast

We went up Wildcat first, an area I didn’t really like the day before, mostly because of a steep and narrow gulley, even though the easiest area of the hill had powder that hadn’t been skied on. The snow on day two was drastically different. It had been groomed and was ribbed, hard and crunchy, which isn’ the best for turning.

At the halfway point I opted for the “easier way down” to avoid the gulley. This path ended up being a narrow section of S-curves down the face of the hill.

I started this section not making the best of turns and had a hard time righting myself. After a small break to regroup, I started up again and immediately could tell that my turning was still off.

In one of my guidebooks I had read that there were plenty of hills at Alta where one could fall and not stop until the bottom. Even though I knew this would be not so possible, and Jon assured me it couldn’t happen, it was still a fear. And as I couldn’t complete my turn, I knew that to avoid going over the edge of the path, I had to fall, which I promptly did.

After finally making it to the bottom, we met up with a group of Jon’s friends, who wanted to know how I was doing. My answer was that yes, I did come back for a second day of skiing, but that I just had my first fall.

Fortunately for me, we skied only once more in that area, before heading to another part of the mountain where the snow and hills are much friendlier. I progressed through the day, still without much confidence, but at least knowing that I could ski well enough to successfully get by.

The view on day two

Throughout the day, Jon would pick more difficult paths paralleing the main routes for more adventure than I could handle, but at one point he wanted to ski a difficult route at a much faster speed, meeting me at the closest lift. I wasn’t fond of skiing down alone, so our friend Brad said he would ski down with me.

I thought I should get a head start so Brad wouldn’t have to stop and wait for me at some point, and after a few minutes of skiing alone, Brad (who skis in the Telemark, rather than alpine style) still hadn’t caught up to me. I could see him behind me, so I continued on. Finally I learn that Brad has caught up when I turn and almost turn into him, and I followed him the rest of the way down.

We met Jon at the lift, when I excitedly said that I skied down without stopping, which was a first over the two days. And the Brad so very nicely says he was impressed at my skiing and that he had a hard time catching me.

It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Jon, to my pleasure, never said anything about my skiing, but hearing that I was doing OK was quite exciting.

Shortly after that we decided to work our way back down, as it was approaching the end of the day. We took the Supreme Lift up, which is the highest in the ski area and over 10,000 feet, because I wanted to see the view from the top of the Collins Lift one more time. From the top of the Collins Lift, clear skies provide views of the Oquirrh Mountains on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley.

View from the top of the Supreme Lift

To get from Supreme to Collins, we had to take the Collins Return trail, which has a slight decline in a C-curve across the eastern face of 11,068-foot Mount Baldy. This trail was situated perfectly to create severe, blowing wind that made this otherwise easy trail significantly difficult. The wind was blowing hard enough that it, towards the end of the trail, stopped me in my tracks.

We headed down the mountain one final time, skiing my least favorite part, but I made it through the crunchy snow to the bottom, where I was both pleased and relieved.

It really wasn’t so bad, and I will even admit to having fun.

The group at the Peruvian after skiing

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Wednesday photo: Schloss Leopoldskron

Posted on February 16, 2011 by elliewick

“Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun,” says the Baroness, as Maria meanders through the Captain’s gardens on lake with Untersberg views and horses with fins.

This is a view that many people don’t get in Salzburg. Visitors can see the palace from the street and you can see the lake and the mountain, but standing on the property of the palace with a view of the gate and mountain that appears in “The Sound of Music” isn’t easily accomplished because its private property, but when your art history teacher is the city’s head art historian, well, new spots in town open up to you.

I really couldn’t have been more pleased to be here. Schloss Leopoldskron is the back of the von Trapp palace in the movie and I never expected to touch the grounds or be afforded this view.

Here’s the back of the palace:

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Postcard arrival: Austria (mailed from Taiwan) and Thailand

Posted on February 4, 2011 by elliewick

When I received this card I immediately thought that this mountainous scene looked very Austrian.

But then I flip the card over and see that the cancellation is from Taiwan. And the sender is actually from Malaysia. The rest of the message says that she hopes I enjoy the Great Mountain Railway in Australia.

Hmmm. I didn’t think Australia was so mountainous and well, I still can’t stop seeing the similarities of Central European architecture here.

Finally I read the caption that says Brennerbahn. The Brennerbahn is the train system that connects Innsbruck, Austria, to Verona, Italy.

So here’s another case of Austria/Australia confusion. There are no kangaroos in Austria, thanks!

This next postcard is from Bangkok, with a wonderful compilation of things you can do and see there, like ride a tuk-tuk or see golden buddhas.

This card also came with some lovely stamps that didn’t scan so well because the card has a bit of a curve to it and it also got a bit damp on its travels.

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Wednesday photo: Keukenhof

Posted on February 2, 2011 by elliewick

At some point during the fall semester of my year abroad, I became fixated on the idea of seeing the tulips in the Netherlands. I already majorly loved tulips, but when I realized I could see fields and fields of them I had to go. The Netherlands is also home to my favorite painting, Johaness Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” so I was able to combine those for a wonderful week living my Dutch dream.

Tulips were everywhere and I was in bulb heaven. Tulips weren’t the only flower in this humongous garden; hyacinths and daffodils were also common place.

This was a wonderfully lovely day spent between a bike ride through the bulb fields in Lisse and a tour through the gardens of Keukenhof.

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Successful dancing at Sundance

Posted on January 31, 2011 by elliewick

Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, both was and wasn’t everything that I expected.

I expected huge crowds, no parking, some paparazzi, sold-out movies (and therefore no waitlist tickets) and perhaps even a star sighting. Even down to the hazy weather of Salt Lake City isn’t what I got in the resort town along the Wasatch Back.

After entering the canyon I-80 cuts through to Park City, the sun came out, shining across the mountains, and I regretted leaving my sunglasses behind. Good weather, I figured, would bring out more people to this 11-day session of film.

The Wasatch mountains

Jon and I arrived in town just as 3 p.m. hit, which was when the free parking lot that was near our selected viewing opened to the public. I expected a line of cars waiting to get in and there were none. We parked with about five other cars and there were maybe 10 when we returned hours later. I guess a lot of people were willing to pay $20 to park, rather than walk 10 minutes for free.

We found our theater, the Holiday Village Cinema IV, and asked around about waitlist tickets. The waiting would occur inside a big, white tent in the middle of the parking lot. We found out that starting the waitlist line at 3:20 p.m. was too early for the 4 p.m. time when tickets would be handed out, and we were specifically told to leave the tent and not loiter.

We killed time in a sporting goods store in the shopping center and around a quarter to, we headed back to the tent and bypassed a group of loiterers. They recognized us (my lime green coat kind of stuck out) as the first arrivals from earlier and let us start the waitlist line. Those loiterers outside were a bit ruffled, but honestly, we were there before you anyway. We were only going to feel bad about Waitlister No. 3 if we would get tickets and not he, because he was a fan of the subject of our selected film.

Jon chose “Senna,” a movie about Ayrton Senna, a fantastic Formula One race car driver from Brazil who died on the track in 1994 as a three-time World Champion. This was the last movie I thought he would chose — I hadn’t even read the description in the Film Guide Jon had picked up a few weeks earlier — but it was the only film at our chosen time slot that wasn’t a love story. This reasoning elicited a chuckle but wasn’t a surprise. Nor was I going to complain, because one of the many things I read about Sundance was to use it as an opportunity to see a film, particularly a documentary, that you would not see otherwise. “Senna” embodied that thought perfectly.

Around 4 p.m., they handed out the bright pink waitlist tickets and told us to be back by 5:15 p.m., 15 minutes before the Sundance rules suggest.

Now, a pink piece of paper doesn’t get the ticket holder into a film. That’s what the whole business about returning at 5:15 p.m. was about. After more time to kill spent eating at the grocery store and walking about halfway to the historic Main Street area, it was time to get in line again.

We lined up by number while the true ticket holders were also lining up by arrival time. These other people lining up had bought tickets in advance or had a pass. The people in the waitlist ticket line would take all the seats the ticket holders didn’t claim, and they could claim a seat until 15 minutes before the film begins.

As the 15-minute mark was approaching, the Sundance volunteers sold 10 tickets ($15 each) to the first 10 people in line. But even with a ticket in hand, a seat in the theater still wasn’t guaranteed.

Finally, at about 10 til, the first group of us was ushered into the theater. Jon and I had already decided we would rather sit in the front of the theater and be able to sit next to each other (this was our first time together in a movie theater!) rather than sit alone with less craning of the neck. We got seats in the third row from the front, which weren’t too painful.

I was quite excited. I mean, we got in to a Sundance film! And it was (without our prior knowledge) a North American premier! And, of course, the director, screenwriter and producers were there and would participate in a Q&A session after the screening.

For all my excitement, though, I wasn’t sure how I would respond to a film about race car driving. Of the sports I’ve seen on TV, I’d rank race car driving as the second-most boring sport to watch next to golf.

Ayrton Senna turned out to have a very interesting life quite worthy of a documentary. Everything the audience saw on screen was of Senna. There were no cuts away from the action to focus on the speaker. Everything said was either the audio on the original video (home videos, official racing videos, cockpit videos, news broadcasts) or voice overs from friends and family who were never seen being interviewed. The director credited his background in narrative film, rather than documentary film, for this setup.

It was constant Senna, and this man had a very challenging uprising into Formula One from go-karts in Brazil and easily found a nemesis in his some-of-the-time teammate and all-the-time challenger Alain Prost of France.

Two days before his death, Senna’s protégé Rubens Barrichello was seriously injured at the San Marino Grand Prix course. The next day Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a qualifying race. When the official race began, one of the cars at the starting line stalled and another driver slammed right into him, injuring nine people in the stands.

Then on the fourth lap, Senna doesn’t properly navigate a turn and crashes into a barrier at approximately 135 mph. He was declared dead in the hospital that day.

An Italian court determined the cause of accident was from steering column failure. When he crashed into the barrier, the right front wheel came unhinged and crashed into the cockpit, striking his helmet, with other parts attached to the wheel penetrating his helmet.

It was refreshing to learn about something new at the screening and then hear about the film from the creators.

Director Asif Kapadia, Executive Producer Kevin Macdonald, and Screenwriter and Executive Producer Manish Pandey

To make this experience even sweeter, I just found out today that “Senna” was the Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary Film. We rated it well, and many of the other viewers must have done so, too.

We didn’t run across many crowds, nor did Jon and I see and stars or paparazzi. But that just shows that not everything is as expected, and what we wanted happened: a chance to experience Sundance Film Festival with an entertaining film.

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One year later and a list of desired experiences

Posted on January 27, 2011 by elliewick

Travelin’ the globe is now a year old. Yes, it’s really been around since the spring of 2008, but this after-college version just turned one.

In honor of this day, I’ve compiled a list of 25 things I want to experience before I die.

I have been thinking about such a list for a month or so now, after reading a small book called “Life’s Little Instruction Book” by H. Jackson Brown Jr. This list is instruction No. 436, and the author suggests you carry this list in your wallet and refer to it often.

Now I could easily make a list of 25 travel destinations, but an experience is so much more to me than just a spot on the map. I listed a few of these in My Dream Trips, a post from March 2010. Since then, I have accomplished some things from my list of dream trips and some other things I did not know were on my list. These include the Colosseum in Rome and the redwoods of California and skiing the mountains of Utah, which I just did this past weekend.

As I learn more about the world I am introduced to more and more places and events and my list of places and experiences will always be evolving, so making this list was difficult. It was also easy to skip over other types of experiences than travel adventures, but then my list would be lacking.

So without further ado, my top 25 things to experience before I die:

  1. A tour of Egypt with stops at Giza, the Sphinx and the Valley of the Kings
  2. Seeing more of America, especially its national parks, such as
  3. The Grand Canyon
  4. Grand Teton National Park
  5. The charm of the south in cities like Savannah, Ga. and
  6. New Orleans
  7. Auschwitz
  8. Lake Nakuru, Kenya, covered in flamingos
  9. Curling on a lake, preferably in my kilt
  10. Cultural celebrations like Carnival in Venice
  11. Holidays unique to a small area, like Krampus events in Austria
  12. Living abroad learning a new language
  13. Watching the Northern Lights in Norway
  14. Haggling in a market in Morocco
  15. Relaxing through Spain, Italy and France
  16. Learning more about unfamiliar places, particularly in Central and South America
  17. Dancing in the street to the songs of roving musicians
  18. Trying more things that take me out of my comfort zone, like canyoneering
  19. Being less resistant to new foods
  20. Contributing to a worldly cause and making a difference
  21. Doing what I love
  22. Love, marriage and a family
  23. Living with less
  24. Writing a book
  25. Living out my dreams
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Wednesday photo: Karterados, Santorini

Posted on January 19, 2011 by elliewick

One of the things I was secretly hoping to see in Greece was a windmill.

I found one just down the street from the hotel in Santorini, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea.

This is in Karterados, in the central part of the island, south of Thira and Ia, the two main coastal towns.

This spot was even more lovely because it was free of dogs, which were a major problem everywhere we went.

Greece was definitely was one of the best trips I took on my year abroad. In the off season, Greece is wonderful.

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Ski (and snowboard) adventures: past, present and upcoming

Posted on January 18, 2011 by elliewick

At the end of this week, I’ll be skiing down the slopes of Alta Ski Area in Little Cottonwood Canyon, east of Salt Lake City.

That’s at least my goal.

I like mountains, I like snow and I generally like skiing. In high school, I changed directions and started snowboarding. I was never super comfortable snowboarding, but skiing in Ohio wasn’t challenging at all, so I changed things up for some entertainment.

One of my Austrian friends invited me to join her snowboarding in February 2009 at Hochficht in the Bohemian Forest where Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic meet. I jumped at the chance and had a good, but exhausting time. You can pretty much touch the Czech Republic from the top of one of the hills at this family-friendly ski area that wasn’t too scary for my lack of experience in the ski and snowboarding world of classy resorts.

Snowboarding at Hochficht

Then I moved up to the big leagues. In exchange for some English proofreading, I was given a ski adventure in the Alps.

My friend Heidi pretty much grew up on the Alps in the tiny town of Leogang. Her house is on the side of the mountain and you could ski to her house from the resort area Skicircus (here’s the map), with slopes in Saalbach, Hinterglemm and Leogang.

View from Heidi's house

I was pretty excited about this adventure, because it was one I dreamed of completing while studying abroad in Austria. I had become accustomed to the thought of high peaks, from climbing the Untersberg in Salzburg to admiring the Alps on my walk back from school to my dorm, and any train ride south took you to the mountains in a matter of minutes.

The Austrian Alps

And these were real mountains. To a girl from Ohio, Holiday Valley Ski Resort in New York is mountainous, but in Austria there are jagged, snow-capped, granite peaks just waiting for me.

Until I got to the lift and pretty much freaked out. When I snowboarded earlier in the year I experienced the t-bar lift and ski passes you keep in your pocket and wave at a gate to get to the lift. This time around, I began my ascent up the mountain on a gondola, standing inside with my skis hanging off the side. The lift covered 4 kilometers of terrain and you could get off at the midway point!

I was worried I was getting into much more than I could handle on this two-day ski adventure when I hadn’t skied for seven years. As I went about trying to ski, I realized I didn’t really know how to ski anymore and couldn’t turn in any fashion other than in a wedge.

Riding the t-bar lift

I survived day one (which included a trip to church to celebrate Easter the night before the holiday and is a whole different story), but day two started out earlier and lasted many more hours. I was sore. I couldn’t really ski. Heidi kept taking me down black hills that scared the living daylights out of me. We skied so far away that we caught the ski bus to take us back to the Leogang side of the slopes.

Heidi and I posing with the mountains

We could see the Großglocker, the highest point in Austria. I was thirsty in a country that doesn’t have drinking fountains and isn’t happy giving out tap water for free. Her brother was kind-heartedly picking on my love of wedging, since that was the only way I could get down the hill. I was also quite hot because I was overdressed for skiing in 70+ degree April weather.

Resting in the sun at the Bärnalm

Finally, I more or less said that we needed to start heading back because I was too exhausted. But it required a lot of skiing to get back to where we started and we had to beat the lifts that were approaching closing time to get there.

And then I recognized the area where we started. Heidi’s mom was waiting at the top of the gondola, which I rode down with her rather than ski all the way to the bottom.

And so, my last memory of skiing was this not so happy ending to a wonderful Austrian ski adventure. Now I’ve planned this trip to Utah to see my boyfriend that will likely include two days of skiing, and all I can think about is how nervous I was skiing in Austria and how I couldn’t turn.

I’m not much for doing things that I don’t want to do. I would easily not eat dinner to avoid some scary-looking food. I started this Austria ski trip in a good mind set and was pretty pumped about skiing in the Alps. I left worn out and stressed, not being able to end on a good run. It also left me with no real burning desire to strap skis to my feet again, either.

But I want to participate in Jon’s life, and Jon’s life involves skiing. And I have to ski because his ski area of choice bans snowboarders.

So my dad and I headed to Holiday Valley over New Year’s weekend so that I could relearn how to turn and uplift my confidence. I can turn, so I at least have that going for me. I’m still a basket case about everything else.

Usually the more I prepare for something the more confident I become. Sharing my thoughts and feelings usually helps, too.

This hasn’t been the case. I’ve made Jon nervous about taking me skiing, and he doesn’t get nervous about skiing, because I’ve worried about it so much.

I looked at the map of Alta online and was impressed by its graphics. The chart says that 25 percent of the hills are beginner and 40 percent are intermediate. That sounds like a good amount of potentially Alison-friendly terrain, until I looked at the map and saw that black diamonds cover most of the terrain, regardless of what the percentages say.

And the base elevation at Alta is higher than the majority of the Alps, even if the vertical drop of Alta is only half the distance of Skicircus.

And then on Sunday, when I bought a Salt Lake City guidebook, I decided the first thing I would read would be the description of Alta, which says Alta has some of the most difficult terrain in the world. And if you would fall on one of a couple black hills, you likely wouldn’t stop rolling. Ever.  Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about that because I won’t be going down any black hills. Black hills in New York are scary and all ratings are relative, so these ones can only be worse.

What all this comes down to is that I’m worried. I want Jon to still have a good time skiing and I don’t want to disappoint him by hating his favorite ski resort, just because I’m afraid and not having fun.

So what do I do? I keep looking at my map of Skicircus, telling myself that I managed to survive this massive ski area with 90 trails. I did it. I fell only once on nearly level ground and I didn’t break anything. And that was when I couldn’t turn. I can turn now, and that’s all that matters.

I can’t have any fun if I don’t try, and I’m not flying all the way to Utah to watch my boyfriend and his friends have fun skiing while I sit in a lodge and read a book (not that that wouldn’t be fun). Maybe that will be what I do at some point in my life, but not this time. This time I have to try.

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The agony of being sick away from home

Posted on January 8, 2011 by elliewick

Since Wednesday night, I haven’t spent more than a few hours each day away from my bed. I can’t eat anything, I can hardly drink anything and I can’t sleep in the afternoon or evening. I can’t even read because my head hurts too much, and I doubt that writing this post will make me any better either. This makes for some hungry, thirsty, and rather long and uneventful days. Talking on the phone is the most excitement I have had.

I had hoped and hoped that I would be well enough to go to work this evening for my Saturday night sports shift, but that isn’t even happening. My boss doesn’t want to be infected with my stomach virus and I would rather not share as well.

This is the first time I’ve been sick like this since I was a child. I know I was sick in elementary school, but after that, I have no recollection of truly being bedridden.

There have been four times in the past four years where an illness has caught me off guard and I’ve been out of my comfort zone.

The first time was in July 2006 when I was on a summer study abroad program in Austria. I knew something was wrong while I was there, but I didn’t know what it was. When I returned to Ohio, I went to the doctor who gave me medicine that only made me worse. I was really worried about my problems because the beginning of marching band was approaching and I didn’t want to not be able to march. In the end, I was diagnosed with an uncurable illness that is under control with medication. I only missed a day and a half of marching band and wasn’t ever truly bedridden. And quite fortunately, it hasn’t stopped me from doing much since then.

Then, in the summer of 2008, quite far away from everyone I knew in New York City, I went to sleep one evening with some eye pain. I woke up the next morning, with some serious eye pain but really didn’t know what to do. I went to work, where I progressed to miserable and freaked out my bosses by crying, and they suggested their doctors, none of whom would see me. But someone else from the office had recently been to an eye clinic, which is where I headed. They took care of me, said I had an eye ulcer and soon enough, I was better.

Back to Austria, in February 2009, I had returned from my epic trip to London, Dublin and Greece. Then one night, alone in my dorm room and more or less alone in the entire building (it was the semester break), I started to experience some severe stomach pains. I had no money on my phone, so I couldn’t call any of my friends for help if I had needed it and I also didn’t know the number for Austria’s 911. This was the only time I was truly scared about my illness because I was entirely alone.

And then, at Thanksgiving 2009, I decided I had the swine flu, but after a day of sleep, I was ready to go.

This time around, though, everything is different. I’ve been helpless since Tuesday, more or less, and I don’t know what to do with myself. There isn’t much to do anyway.

What I’ve learned through this is that it’s really nice to have a mom take care of you when you are ill. I’m too sick to be doing much of anything, but if I want anything to eat, I have to fix it myself and that means I need to keep cleaning things like the dishwasher and refrigerator handles and the remote so that I don’t leave my germs on things for my roommate. At least my roommate did get me some more chicken broth and ginger ale, which I wouldn’t have been able to do myself because there’s no way I’m getting in my car.

Still, I’m pretty much alone here. This might be my current home, but it’s not homey and my parents’ house is. There are a handful of people I could ask for help, but I’m not that miserable yet. Just if I was home with my mother, I wouldn’t have to ask for help and I wouldn’t worry about infecting my helper.

So now that I’ve survived this hour writing this, I think I’ll migrate to the living room and television, where a Disney movie is in order. I’m thinking “Aladdin” because “Beauty and the Beast” can make me sad, and I’d much rather be happy. And I’m starting to get hungry, so maybe I’ll be able to eat a small amount of chicken broth. Think good thoughts!

How do you deal with illnesses when you’re away from home or traveling?

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Celebrating the new year in Salzburg

Posted on January 6, 2011 by elliewick

Growing up, celebrating the holidays at home was important. The one year we didn’t spend at home is one we’ll all remember because of all the things that were out of the ordinary, like having to eat mashed potatoes without gravy.  My brother and I were traumatized.

After spending a year abroad, where there were different holidays or holidays celebrated differently, I got used to things being a little out of the ordinary.

I spent Christmas in Romania with my Romanian roommate, which was really quite pleasant, but since I didn’t get to be in Salzburg for Christmas, I definitely wanted to be back for New Year’s Eve.

I knew there would be some celebrations in Salzburg that evening, but like many of the holidays there, I didn’t know what they really would be like until I arrived.

My friend Mary Beth and I met on the bus and headed to the Altstadt, the old part of town. There was a stage set up at Residenzplatz, where bands played throughout the night. Stands were set up with food and drinks, and as the new year ticked closer, we bought glasses of champagne and headed out to the river, where we could watch the fireworks fall over the Festung.

On our way to the river, we encountered all sorts of people with all sorts of fireworks that were being shot off in narrow streets going everywhere. This could never happen in America. I mean, this was dangerous. I don’t know how Mary Beth and I weren’t hit by anything, because we spent that whole walk dodging fiery bullets.

But what happened as the clock struck midnight was magical. There were so many fireworks from so many directions, conjoining into one lovely show. The celebrations were like no other I’d seen.

The celebrations on New Year’s Eve were not the only celebrations for the holiday. New Year’s Day is a day of waltzing in Austria.

Mary Beth and I met again in the city center to find out what the celebrations would be like. We snacked on pretzels and pig-shaped donuts for good luck in the new year while enjoying the music.

It was frigid out these two days, and I can’t imagine playing instruments outside for so long. But regardless of how the musicians did it, they were amazing.

They took the time to say “thank you” to the Americans visiting by playing “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music” and also honored the Italians in the audience with some Italian music.

A variety of traditional Austrian songs were played, but the evening would not be complete without a waltz, and in following tradition, this waltz should be “An der schönen blauen Donau” by Johann Strauss.

The audience was asked to waltz, of course, to the 10-minute long waltz. I swayed to the music as I filmed the dancing.

Und zwar, frohes neues Jahr!

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